Wednesday, 3 February 2016

Retro-styled Eldar Scout - Merne Darkbrow

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With the ongoing development of my Eldar Void Pirates warband in my current Inquisimunda campaign, I needed a new recruit. I fancied making a character which had a bit of a Eldar Scout / Ranger vibe, but wanted the figure to tie in with some of the styling of the Rogue Trader Space Elves.

I delved around in my bits box and sourced a spare Space Elf and a gun-less Eldar scout from a previous conversion. I quickly mocked up the below concept:﻿

Satisfied that the conversion would do the job, I set about the two figures with my saw, making sure to avoid damage to the slung helmet and laspistol hanging from the left shoulder. I replaced the shuriken weapon with a plastic Eldar lasgun, and added the scope from a modern plastic Dire Avenger. Then it was a case of covering the joins and repairing any damage with greenstuff.

It had been suggested that I needed to add a predominantly blue Eldar to my warband, so this new addition got a dark midnight-blue colour scheme, accessorised with white and pink.

Merne Darkbrow is one of Prince Nuadha's most trusted scouts. His midnight-blue armour, and cameleoline-coated robe allow him to fade into shadows at a whim.

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I had finished painting the figure with a plain blue coat / robe, but after a discussion with cheetor about kimonos, I decided to push myself and add a kimono style pattern. I did a Google search and rather liked this pattern below:

I made an approximation of the pattern with some white swirls, then added pink and white dots. I think the result does enough to deceive the eye.

Merne will make his in-game debut tonight against a ravening band of Dark Eldar. Hopefully he won't suffer the usual fate of newly-painted figures, and will avoid dying horribly and ineffectually!

I confess, I'm a long-time fan of Eldar. I have a couple of pretty big 40k armies, but I never really managed to paint them how I envisaged (production-line painting). It's been really enjoyable to revisit the line with the early figures, and lavish some attention on them :)

Tremendous conversion, and as expected a great paint job further elevates it.

I like that the "kimono" pattern could read as flowers and lines (as in the example) or alternately a stellar map... which I am sure a few rogue traders, rival pirates, or inquisitors would like to get their grubby mon-kei hands on.

"Eldar problems" even the cheapest tat seems like treasure to the other races. (you should see the delicate pattern work on their bogroll, commonly looted to make dresses for the nobility in several Imperial sectors)

Stunning new addition. I love the kimono work. It's a great pattern. It's always amazing what you can convincingly suggest with a few blobs and whorls. (I did a flower print scarf once in a similar fashion. Smaller, but same idea.) The blue is a terrific color for eldar. Truly classic. And a top notch conversion.

About Me

I've been gaming since the late 1980s - I tend to get distracted and jump from one project to another. The one constant is that I love the character of Citadel miniatures of the late 1980s and early 1990s - Warhammer, Blood Bowl, Rogue Trader.